Sala Silvermine Underground
Suite, Sweden
All that glitters is not
gold—sometimes it's silver. Although, we're not sure if there's
even enough light at 500 feet underground to cast a sparkle on
anything. That's the depth of the Sala Silvermine Underground Suite, but the
one-room hovel is mesmerizing if only for being the deepest hotel
in the world, carved in an abandoned 18th-century Swedish silver
mine and sparsely furnished with silver-hewn pieces. Guests are
treated to a brief tour and then left to weather the chilly,
36-degree room for the night—not a suite for the faint of
heart.
La Villa Hamster,
France
"Is it possible to put myself in the
place of my hamster?" queries the website of this wacky place
tucked on a humble Nantes side street. If this question resonates
with you, La Villa Hamster holds the answer—and with its
woodchip-lined bathroom, haystack beds, giant suspended
foot-operated water bottle, and trés romantique hamster wheel for two, the answer seems to
be yes. Yes,
you can be a hamster for a night if that's what you want, right
down to the fur—the front desk equips each guest with hamster masks
upon check-in.
Bubble Tree Hotel,
France
Living in a bubble isn't just for
Glenda the Good Witch anymore. In France, you can see what it's
like by booking a stay in one of designer Pierre Stéphane Dumas's
inflatable private pods. The see-through, surreal shelters are
floating all over France in eight different nature-y locations.
Guests have options when it comes to privacy (half-translucent
bubbles are available) and size. And with a filter that removes all
bugs, moisture, and allergens, along with ultraviolet-proof
plastic, these glamorous orbs provide protection from the elements
that's much better than that of an actual bubble.
Grand Canyon Caverns Suite,
Arizona
For true privacy on your next
retreat, it'd be hard to beat the Grand Canyon Caverns Suite.
At 220 feet, it's so deep underground and devoid of natural light
that absolutely nothing lives there. Thanks to the mammoth
limestone cavern that contains it, the room's air is dry and
filtered; and along with the beds, attached living area, and
bathroom, the cavern is perfectly fit for human hospitality. The
cavern functioned as a Cold War-era bomb shelter fit to support
2,000 survivors for a month, and is now part of a larger, 48-room
motel at the Grand Canyon.
Propeller Island City Lodge,
Berlin
If the kooky, avant-garde ethos of
Berlin could be captured in one hotel, it would be in the Propeller
Island City Lodge. In fact, there's a reason "hotel" isn't in its
name—a stay at Propeller Island is more akin to spending the night
in a work of art. Every room holds a radically unique ambience
constructed entirely by German artist Lars Stroschen, including a
peppy prison cell complete with coffin beds and a room where
upside-down furniture dangles from the ceiling as you unpack your
sunken bed from within the floor below.
Save the Beach Hotels, multiple
locations
Who would have thought a hotel
that's literally made of trash would have advocate-guests as
well-heeled as Bar Refaeli and Helena Christensen? Apparently
German artist HA Shult foresaw a glamorous future in repurposing
refuse as refuge—his mobile hotel creation, placed first in
Rome in 2010 and then in
Madrid in 2011, is
constructed from 12 tons of litter found on European beaches. The
idea is to revitalize the beaches by cleaning them up, and the
hotel is the mission's vibrant manifestation, with walls studded
with everything from plastic bottles and crushed cans to abandoned
instruments and limbs of discarded mannequins.
Dog Bark Park Inn,
Idaho
It's Clifford-sized, Snoopy-colored,
and you can spend the night inside of it. It's a Trojan Dog of
sorts, located on the Idaho prairie, along with a porta-potty
disguised in a giant red fire hydrant. The Dog Bark Park
Inn itself is a nine-meter tall beagle named "Sweet Willy"
that houses a canine-themed wonderland, complete with 26 carved
dogs and dog-shaped cookies. Guests sleep in a single room with a
queen bed and an adjacent loft with two twin beds—probably the
nicest doghouse you'll ever sleep in.
